


from the ground, up

by commovente



Series: SASO2016: bonus rounds 5 & 6 [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: (of the plantwing variety), Alternate Universe - Wings, mild body horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-24
Updated: 2016-07-24
Packaged: 2018-07-26 10:43:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7571110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/commovente/pseuds/commovente
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p></p><blockquote>
  <p> A morning like every other, seen from a viewpoint unlike any other. Tooru blinks, registers the flutter of the motion even as he recognises himself, unblinking before him, walking familiar streets with familiar feet. Except that can’t be right; Tooru is standing right here.</p>
  <p>Isn’t he?</p>
</blockquote>
            </blockquote>





	from the ground, up

**Author's Note:**

> fill for SASO 2016, bonus round 5: myth & lore.
> 
>  
> 
> honestly i don't really have any explanation for this other than i saw [this](https://twitter.com/kiyu_1221/status/728502686929195008) and immediately began to derail...

A morning like every other, seen from a viewpoint unlike any other. Tooru blinks, registers the flutter of the motion even as he recognises himself, unblinking before him, walking familiar streets with familiar feet. Except that can’t be right; Tooru is standing right here.

Isn’t he?

Trailing after himself-that-isn’t proves itself no simple feat, either. Where this Oikawa treads bloom flowers in lieu of a shadow — hydrangeas, mostly, primroses and camellia threading up to grow in the spaces remaining — and although they are beautiful Tooru finds them almost impossible to navigate, Oikawa’s footsteps exceedingly difficult to follow. 

Tooru chases anyway. Every stride he makes stretches out to cover more and more ground, feeling no less challenging for Tooru’s increasing progress. Still, he rolls his shoulders back and pushes forward, imagines wings taking root at the heart of his spine, unfurling further momentum to carry him forwards.

The flowers grow closer together the more distance Oikawa walks; Tooru wonders how anyone else manages to make it through the dense undergrowth. Not that anyone else remotely looks like they’re trying, everyone Tooru comes across either heading back the way Tooru came or else turning at another direction entirely. Tooru doesn’t lose sight of where he’s going, though, and knows with certainty first unfounded that Oikawa is making his way to the gym. And Tooru finds he’s right, Seijou’s gates creeping closer so Tooru splits from the flowers Oikawa leaves behind to run ahead.

There’s barely any breeze at all today but Tooru feels lighter the faster he runs. He laughs, sound sweeping out from his lungs and cresting up into the air, the sky. And for a moment Tooru glances back; doesn’t turn his head entirely, only catches on to movement from the peripheries of his field of vision.

So Tooru turns, perhaps expecting to find Oikawa, himself-that-isn’t, following close behind. After all, if they’re even remotely the same person, Tooru knows Oikawa would follow. Or, not follow — chase. The intention to surpass changes everything and nothing, further roots Tooru in what he knows of himself in the same moment it brings him higher than even that, soaring.

It’s like this: no matter the world, no matter the time; cost means nothing in the face of Oikawa Tooru’s relentless growth, unyielding, indomitable.

Which is why finding Oikawa still behind him — with less distance separating them than Tooru anticipated, but that’s irrelevant — doesn’t surprise Tooru in the slightest. It’s the wing, no less striking for its singularity, sprouting from Oikawa’s shoulder blade that encompasses Tooru’s attentions.

At least, Tooru thinks it might be a wing. Tooru’s wing has no feathers. Formed from vine, leaves shape the wing instead, verdant and alive. No flowers grow from it, but Tooru thinks it might only be a case of no flowers blooming _yet;_ the leaves are bright but young, nowhere near complete. Whether they ever will be, or if Tooru’s wing is even there at all — well. Tooru supposes this, too, is something only unseen for now.

And finally, finally, Oikawa catches up to him. Together they stand, facing the doors to the gym, unmoving.

“So,” Oikawa begins.

“You’re coming too, then?” Tooru responds.

Oikawa laughs. “I’d think you of all people know what happens from here.”

Smiling, Tooru tilts his head, appraising the boy beside him, waiting. Real or not, Tooru believes he’s there, and that’s enough. This time when he reaches out his hand to rest on the door, Oikawa moves too, mirroring the motion. Left and right hands on the door, they push it open. Just before the view inside becomes visible, Tooru says:

“But I don’t.”

Oikawa doesn’t pause but he does slow, and Tooru supposes his hand must’ve slowed against the door, too.

“What?”

“I don’t,” Tooru repeats. “Know what’s going to happen from here.”

“Does that matter?” Oikawa hums, considering.

“I never said that. Though I suppose you knew that, too.”

“Well, who can say for sure?”

And Tooru laughs as the doors slide open completely, hears himself above the groan of the wood on the floor, echoing against the walls, resonating.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!
> 
>  
> 
> p.s.: you know what would be fun? checking out the hanakotoba for the flowers blooming from oikawa's shadow


End file.
